Veteran calls on fellow survivors to join fight for 'bomber boys' to be given medals

Veteran calls on fellow survivors to join fight for 'bomber boys' to be given medals

A VETERAN is calling on fellow WWII survivors to join his fight for RAF bomber crews to be given medals for their service and says they feel 'betrayed.'
As a teenager Ivor Foster, now 92, was served as aircrew with Bomber Command regularly risking his life on raids into Nazi-occupied Europe.

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But Ivor, who lives in Plympton, Devon, said the lack of recognition was an insult to the bravery of the crews and he was determined to put it right while he is still alive.

He said: "Thousands of volunteer air crew have never been awarded.

"Our bomber leader, Harris, approached Churchill right after the war and proposed that Bomber Command should have a medal and Churchill refused.

"He refused it and never mentioned anything of the RAF in his victory speech and Bomber Harris never got any recognition."

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Ivor Foster believes it is a "insult" that the Bomber Command will not receive medals.

Ivor was one of 125,000 aircrew who flew with Bomber Command during World War Two - 55,573 of which were killed in action.

The chance of completing an operation tour were around one in three.

But after the war they were shunned and Ivor has stepped up the fight to have Bomber Command properly recognised.

He described the offer of a 'clasp' in 2012 as an insult and called on MPs and fellow survivors to join his campaign.

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Ivor Foster during World War 2.

He said: "There's no doubt that Mr Churchill not only shunned the Bomber Boys of England, but also our colleagues in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and India who were all volunteers."

"I've been on to a number of people about the Bomber Command medal.

"The nearest we got was when David Cameron asked Sir John Holmes to look into it as part of a military review on medals.

"He suggested that boys that went on the Russian convoy from the Navy and Merchant Navy would have an Atlantic medal and the Bomber Boys would just have the words 'Bomber Boy' on a piece of metal and you had to apply for it, you weren't awarded it.

"From D-Day to the end of the war Bomber Boys flew in far more dangerous conditions than 1939 to D-Day.

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Ivor Foster in his gunning station.

"If this Government cannot award us our rightly deserved Bomber Command Medal then at least award us the Air Crew Europe Star."

To add insult to injury, Ivor said he and his fellow 'Bomber Boys' faced demotion following the war.

In 1946 Ivor was initially promoted to warrant officer, but just two months later he was demoted to sergeant on an Air Ministry order.

Any servicemen still serving 12 months later were demoted again to aircrewmen.

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